Guitar Center Drum-Off

What: Five finalists battle to be crowned the best drummer in the country. Top professional drummers including Steve Gadd, Zigaboo Modeliste, John Blackwell, Keith Carlock, Gerald Heyward and Darren King will perform and help judge the contest.

•Drumhead endorsement deal with Evans or Remo and stick endorsement deal with Pro-Mark or Vic Firth.

•Shure deluxe drum mic pack

•Roland TD-30KV electronic kit & PM30

•Roland SPD-SX

•Feature in Modern Drummer magazine

Aric Improta got his first drum set when he was 3 years old, and if his family had been like almost any other, they would have realized this was a mistake a week or so later and put the drums away for good.

But Aric was lucky. His parents were musicians, playing in bands with their friends since before he was born, and they always encouraged his musical dreams.

"Music was always celebrated that way in our house," said Improta, 23, of Fullerton. "They were always willing to let me drum as much as I wanted in the house and they were never concerned about the noise."

Now, 20 years later, Improta is one of five drummers from around the country to make the finals of the Guitar Center's 24th annual Drum-Off. After performances by the finalists tonight at Club Nokia in Los Angeles, one lucky drummer will win a prize package worth nearly $50,000 in cash, drum gear and endorsement deals.

"I love this competition and I love drumming," said Improta, who entered for the first time in 2008.

Winning the prestigious national competition also would help his band, Night Verses.

"As much as I want to be known as a drummer, though, it's more important for me that my band gets further along," he said.

It took time, of course, before the little kid with the drum set found the passion and discipline to develop into a contender for the Drum-Off title.

"I would just go and beat on it for 30 seconds and then go and run away," Improta said of his earliest interest in the instrument. "I wasn't into practice at all."

His parents, Richard and Jodi Improta, told him if he was serious and wanted to get a more grown-up drum set, he had to join the elementary school band and learn more about music, which he did in the fourth grade.

"To be honest, I didn't even get that much of the passion as I thought," Improta said. "I got my nice drum set and I'd play on it, but it still didn't click for me until about seventh grade when me and my friends started forming bands."

He played a lot of covers of bands such as Blink-182 and started figuring out how to write original songs, too. He played in three or four bands at the same time and kept up that pace after starting at Sunny Hills High School and finishing up at Troy High.

"I was always trying to play as much as I could with the best musicians as I could, even if I wasn't up to par with them, because I wanted to get better," Improta said.

And, usually, practices were at his house, partly because his parents were cool with all the noise, and partly because he didn't want to have to keep moving his gear around.

"There was a rule that as long as I started after 10 a.m. and stopped by 10 p.m., I was good," he said. "And fortunately, I've had the same neighbors since fourth grade and they were always cool with 12 hours of drumming – I thank them every time I see them on the street."

Drummer Aric Improta jumps high above his drum stool during a performance. ANDY RITCHIE
Drummer Aric Improta's band is Night Verses. They're recording an album now and will be on tour later this year. CHRIS ABOUABDO
Aric Improta started drumming when he was 3 but only got serious about it once he reached middle school. Now he's one of five finalists in the Guitar Center's annual Drum-Off competition. SEAN FUJIWARA
Drummer Aric Improta plays during a gig at the Viper Room in Los Angeles. KALEY NELSON

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